The National commission for Minorities act was introduced in the year 1992 by notification of Central Government in the Official Gazette. As Central Government notified six religious communities as given below is named as minority communities. When the Central government listed these communities as a minority it appears that numerical criterion was taken into consideration.

The list of the minority community in Karnataka is listed below:

• Christian
• Muslim
• Sikh
• Buddha
• Parsi
• Jain

As stated above, Minority Certificate mainly helps those who belong to the minority community in availing the following advantages.

• Reservation of seats in the Legislatures
• Reservation in Government Service
• Relaxation of upper age limit for applying to certain Government jobs
• Waiving off a part or the whole of the admission fees admission to schools and colleges
• Quotas in educational institutions
• Scholarships
• Government Subsidies
• Government Schemes

To avail these privileges, a citizen belonging to a minority community must be in possession of a valid Karnataka Minority certificate.